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by Matt Murray, directed by Mary Francis Moore

Canadian Stage, Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto

November 28, 2025-January 4, 2026

“I don’t know where you’re going / And I don’t know why” (Roxette, Listen To Your Heart, 1988)

It was a great relief last year when Canadian Stage announced it would take over presenting the annual pantos that Ross Petty had made a holiday tradition in Toronto. Last year’s panto The Wizard of Oz: The Toto-ly Awesome Family Musical proved to be a success with loveable main characters, a strong villain and an easy-to-follow story. This year is different. Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical may be written by Matt Murray, who wrote last year’s panto and the five before that, but its characters are confusing, its villain is weak and the story is hard to follow. On top of that, Robin Hood is unusually talky and includes only six songs in its two-hour running time.

In this version of the Robin Hood tale, the year is 1325 and Robin, a young woman, runs a small business making hoodies. She is anxiously waiting news whether the big distributor Glamazon will include her line in its offerings. Unlike the typical panto female lead, Robin alienates all those around her because of her controlling ways. All Robin’s employees quit because of her inability to share her work. Thus, Murray starts the show off on a wrong foot by making the female lead unlikeable.

In a long spoken section we learn that King Richard is in Turkey getting a hair transplant leaving his evil twin brother Prince John to rule in his stead. John’s plan is to put all the small businesses out of business by having Glamazon make copies of everything they sell. John also intends to build an enormous factory for these products in High Park Forest. To make space for the factory he will destroy with a newly invented gold-powered laser canon. Children will get the idea of John destroying High Park but will likely not understand what a hair transplant is or be caught up in the conflict of big business versus small business.

As soon as John’s main henchman Marion appears (not a maid but a young man), spotlights shine on Robin and Marion, bells tinkle and we know it is love at first sight. Yet, Act 1 ends with Marion betraying Robin’s plans to John, thus also making the male lead unlikeable. It turns out in Act 2 that Marion does have good reason for acting as he does, but Murray’s notion of making us doubt the integrity of both of the story’s good guys from the start certainly mutes our enthusiasm.

The show is filled un-panto-like features. Why does the LED background signal “Boo” at Prince John’s first entrance? Does the director not trust the villain’s entrance to trigger that response on its own? Why is there so much standing about and talking and so little singing and dancing? And why, when there is singing, does the director allow the band to drown out the singers? It seems that Murray wants to increase the amount of audience participation, but he doesn’t seem to know how to trigger effectively. Having a character ask an open-ended question receives a chaotic response, not one of the classic panto call-backs.

The actors do what they can with an imperfect script. Julia Pulo, who played Dorothy in last year’s Wizard of Oz, is a perky Robin Hood. Pulo could easily be endearing if Murray had not made Robin a control freak. She a very strong voice although this year it sounded much more piercing than last. As Marion, Praneet Akilla is a charismatic presence which makes it all the worse when we believe Marion is deceiving Robin and her friends. His voice is soft and smooth and blends well with Pulo’s in their sole duet “Listen To Your Heart” (Roxette, 1988). The pity is that the sound technician should allow this song to be nearly obliterated by the band’s accompaniment.

As always in panto, the villain is the most important role. Prince John is Damian Atkins’s first-ever chance to play this kind of role. For unknown reasons costume designer Ming Wong has made Atkins look remarkably like David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days, except with blue instead of red hair. I suppose children who know nothing about Bowie will find this look scary, but the older generation will think John just looks like a famous glam rocker.

Atkins could make an excellent villain. He has a fine singing voice and is able to bring off his one song “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Barrett Strong, 1959) despite the band. Atkins is great at making John petulant and childish, but he tends to mutter his insults rather than exult in them. Under director Mary Francis Moore, who seems not to have directed a panto before, Atkins neglects the traditional body language and rapport with the audience that make panto villains so much fun. Moore does not have Atkins pause and stare down the audience on his first arrival as Ross Petty always used to do to great effect. He speaks his remarks so quickly that they don’t always elicit the audience response they should. Lingering and acting superior is all that is needed to prompt the booing. Unfortunately, Murray tells us that John is insecure, and Moore has directed Atkins to play John that way. It is much better if the panto villain allows the audience to sense that the villain’s bravado is all a screen for his stupidity.

Daniel Williston’s turn as the dame Sparklebum doesn’t really make up for the absence of Dan Chameroy’s funnier, more outgoing Plumbum. Williston delivers his lines but isn’t able to reproduce Chameroy’s delicious pose of faux-innocence. The main connection to the past is Eddie Glen, who starred in fifteen previous Ross Petty pantos. Here as Friar Tuck, without the traditional monk’s habit, Glen has a smaller role than usual. This is rather too bad since he has always been the ideal Buttons figure or villain’s uncertain henchman. Julius Sermonia is a fine Little John although there is no attempt to show that the “little” in John’s name is ironic. In fact, Murray seems to have conceived of Friar Tuck and Little John more Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Sermonia does make Little John stand out through his acrobatic abilities, which should really have been featured more prominently.

Murray has made one positive change from previous pantos in giving each of the chorus members at least a line or two to say. Jordan Bell, Kyle Brown, Malinda Carroll, Sierra Holder, Cara Hunter and Jean-Paul Parker are so hard working it is good that Murray tries to lend each some semblance of individuality. With the decrease in the amount of music, the troupe only has three chances to show off their dancing – in the opening number “Best Day Of My Life” by (American Authors, 2013); at the end of Act 1 in “Beautiful Life” (Ace of Base, 1995), the show’s most crowd-pleasing number; and in the show’s finale “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (Jefferson Starship, 1987). With so few opportunities it would be better if Jennifer Mote’s choreography were more inventive.

Murray has written much cleverer pantos before, most notably The Wizard of Oz (2018) and Peter’s Final Flight (2022). This Robin Hood does not reach their level, not that first-time theatre-goers will know. Let’s hope that Murray gets back on track next time and that Canadian Stage finds a director who is more familiar with the unique style that pantos require.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Eddie Glen as Friar Tuck, Julius Sermonia as Little John, Julia Pulo as Robin Hood and Daniel Williston as Sparklebum; Damian Atkins as Prince John with Cara Hunter as Guard; Julia Pulo as Robin Hood and Praneet Akilla as Mario. © 2025 Dahlia Katz.

For tickets visit: www.canadianstage.com.